Too much Heat for Detroit

The Detroit Pistons just dropped below .500 basketball with their seventh straight loss, 91-103 to The Miami Heat. With the loss Detroit fell into a tie for sixth in the East with Philadelphia, and needs to win in New Orleans today to avoid matching the franchise’s longest skid since 1995.

Key Points:

Should we look past the Teal Era and dub this the Black and Blue Era?

The Pistons’ seven game skid is their longest losing streak since 2002-03.

If this quote by Allen Iverson doesn’t speak for a ton of what Pistons fans have been complaining about all season I don’t know what does. “We don’t have any consistency of how we are going to play night in and night out. We play different ways. We have to find an identity for ourselves on how we are going to play every night and stick to it. We have to live and die with it.” It’s actually quite funny to hear Iverson complain about playing defense when, well he’s know not to play any. “We can’t stop nobody,” he accurately pointed out. “The way we played, we would have to shoot 60 percent to have a chance to win a basketball game. Everybody looks at our offense, but I thought we scored enough to win. We can’t get stops consistently and we can’t get stops when we need them. It seemed like they scored every time down the court.” Via NBA.com

At least they scored 42 paint points….right?

It ultimately was a cold third quarter in which Detroit was outscored 17-28 that did them in.

This is not your Detroit Pistons team.

You could see the frustration on the players’ faces throughout the game.

Photo/Getty Images

Allen Iverson led Detroit with 22 points on 8-for-18 shooting with 2 steals, a rebound and 2 assists. Can’t forget the pretty layup that was the play of the game.

You know Rodney Stuckey is struggling when Kwame Brown has 2 more assists than he does. Stuckey had 8 points, 0 assists, 0 rebounds, and 2 turnovers. Is it a wall or is it the system?

Antonio McDyess once again played his heart out for a team that truly looks like it has given up. Dyess kept Detroit in the ballgame putting up 17 on 8-for-10 shooting.

The Pistons shot 12% from downtown.

Missing in action….Rasheed Wallace. Can’t win when Sheed puts up 6 points and 6 boards. Detroit needs him to dominate when they struggle.

Rip wasn’t around either, just 9 points on 4-11 shooting.

Tayshaun Prince came close to a triple – double with 18 points, 9 boards and 8 assists. Is Tay doing Rodney’s job better than he is?

Raise your hand if you wanted to see Detroit at least try to play zone when they were in trouble. I guess he will try anything because I can remember not so long ago that he didn’t want to play zone D at ALL.

To make things worse, how obnoxious is Wade’s band-aid which reads FLASH with a lightning bolt on it? I don’t care who you are, a display like that is ridiculous. Can you see Antonio with a face band-aid with dice on it? Yes he’s a great player, but get over yourself.

31 Responses to "Too much Heat for Detroit"

Yeah I agree with the bandaid. Is he trying to start a fashion statement because that I the dumbest thing I’ve seen besides Michael Curry’s basketball intellect all year. Why do we keep going to Sheed in clutch moments, he rarely capitalizes. You pass him the ball and he immediately thinks SHOOT! Regardless of how bad the look is. The Piston’s are sending basketball fans all around Michigan and else where into depression. Good luck getting the desperation win against CP3.

“Iverson leads the Pistons in minutes and shots, which might make you think he is their best player. He isn’t. He is actually one of the least-efficient offensive players on the team.

One of the ironies of Iverson is that he always plays hard but makes his teammates want to not play hard. If you have ever played basketball, you know it’s frustrating when one guy dominates the ball. That is Iverson.

He scored 22 points on 8-for-18 shooting in 37 minutes during Tuesday’s loss to Miami.

But it’s not Iverson’s fault he is playing so much. That is on Curry — and, assuming management has consulted with its coach, it is on Dumars.

“And Hamilton looks miserable. The Pistons have toyed with his head all year.

As soon as Hamilton signed a three-year contract extension last fall, the Pistons shipped his buddy Billups to Denver. Then they asked Hamilton to play out of position, alongside Stuckey and Iverson. Then they asked him to come off the bench.

Sunday night, in garbage time of a nationally televised blowout loss, Curry sent out a lineup of Will Bynum, Walter Herrmann, Jason Maxiell, Amir Johnson and … Hamilton.

Why not just ask him to clean the water bottles, too?

The worst part is that next year Iverson will be gone, but Hamilton will be here, and what do you tell him then? That it was all a big misunderstanding? Do you tell him he just had a bad dream and you’ve never heard of this Ellen Arverson lady?”

I don’t agree with the AI comment. Chris Paul, Steve Nash all dominate the ball.
At times it might be a good thing for AI to do that. I remember when Rip was injured, AI used to get the other team in foul trouble within the first few minutes of each quarter.

If Sheed can stick his ass in the paint more often and everyone try to attach the paint more often, we don’t need to shoot 60% to win…

How can AI carry this team if Stuckey and Sheed continue to sucks. Eric Snow and Motombo played better FOR AI when they got to the final.

I’m no big AI fan, but it’s not fair to drop all the bags on him. He might have something to do with the lack of production of other guys compare to Billiups. But if Sheed actually asked for the ball down low, I’m sure AI would’ve passed him the ball. Instead, Sheed continues to try to jack up ‘big shots’ wasting our possessions late in the game.

Why can’t we just tank the seasons and actually get some good draft picks? Otherwise who the hell would want to come to Detroit?!

i agree with “suck on this ai fans”. Future hof my ass. This guy have a career 42 minutes per game and you are all on his balls that he is “capable” of dropping 30 points?? This is ridiculous. You also say “let him be iverson and take over games” Yeah right. I wouldn’t want Iverson in Detroit even if he was 25. The thing is that Iverson makes everybody worse on this team while Billups made everybody better. Billups also had D, 3 pointer and free throws. I really miss those 3 things in Detroit.

I can’t believe that you all are STILL crabby about AI! We have him now, so live with it! The point is to figure out how to use him in the most effective way. I know that an elite coach would have figured it out by now. Fact is, if the Pistons are ever going to be elite again, then they need a coach of that caliber. I find it quite incredible that MC hasn’t gotten the boot yet.

If you think it sucks to be Rip. Just think how much crap AI had to take!! Who’s gonna want to sign him next year any more. Everyone is blaming him for the record. Yet, he’s still at least trying to play hard as if we have some hope, unlike Sheed.

If you think AI is at fault then you would blame it on Curry, because he’s the one who manages the rotation. Same goes for Curry, if falls on Joe D.

If we give Kwame 40 minutes a game and we have a losing record, I’m sure everyone would consider Curry’s decision instead of the weaknesses and abilities of Kwame.

If the Pistons lose every single one of the games on this road trip and then lose to the Nuggets, do you think MC will get fired or at least get an assistant? Or do you think that JD will leave the whole thing alone? I’ve really been wondering, so if anybody out there has an opinion…

I am reluctant to throw Curry under the bus because he’s been put in such a difficult situation but there’s no doubt he is the reason this team has been doing so poorly as of late.

I was in favor of Curry entering the season because we had players that could coach themselves. Curry had been around the system before he understood what he was meant to do he was there to motivate and to develop, nothing more. He didn’t need to change anything, everything was in place. But then AI comes in and Curry is forced to build the system around the player or include AI in the system already set up. A rookie coach shouldn’t have to do that. Rookie coaches never have to build a system to fit the team usually rookie coaches are on bad teams or they were around the team for a very long time and understand how they work. Great coaches like Popovich, Riley, and Phil Jackson can fit a player into a pre-established system. Curry understood how the Hard at Work Pistons worked not this new Piston team without Chauncey Billups.

People blame Dumars and I think to pin it on him is erroneous. He wrongfully thought Curry would be able to fit AI into a system meant for a much slower paced team. A more savvy coach could definitely make this AI experiment work. Curry, in his inexperience tries to create a hybrid of a faster-paced AI-ran team and the Hard at Work Piston taem. As a result players don’t know what the hell their roles are supposed to be. Do we feed the ball to Ivo for isolation? Or do we pound it into the paint using teamwork and pre designed plays? Both ways could be effective if we had the proper coach. But the Iverson experiment is irrelevant. He’s a rental. I am worried about the upcoming free agency. What happens when we get Stoudemire and Wade (hypothetically of course) and we have Curry trying to create a system that does nothing to benefit the skills of these players? If we are to become contenders through free agency we need a coach that can fulfill the needs and skill set of the players and have them compliment each other. It’ll take years before Curry can learn this skill. I don’t think Saunders could’ve done it either. The Pistons need a savvy veteran coach that can do this and I think the championship is a real possibility.

In my opinion I think Curry is safe, at least for this season. Joe Dumars isn’t going to fire him and essentially make Curry the scapegoat in the public’s eyes, especially when Joe Dumars knows if he fires Curry, he essentially has to quit himself. Cause he is just as much at fault for the Pistons troubles this season as Curry.

Plus Curry is his friend and I don’t even think the Pistons are playing for this season.

And I think the pistons just need some stability, firing the coach and introducing a new system now I think would produce a new never before seen level of suckage to basketball

But truth be told, didn’t like him from the start but was going to give him a chance, but then hated him forever when I found out why Lindsey Hunter didn’t resign. The pistons signed Will Bynum and Alex Acker. Because Lindsey was taking “too long” to decide if he was coming back. Him and Joe D.

I will remember that day for the rest of my life. My friend that knew I’m a Pistons fan sent me a link on IM fallowed by “hahahahahahahahahahaha. Are u crying already?” I was like “wtf, what is it”. It was link to the news page on nba.com that Billups was traded for Iverson. I said to my friend “This is good news dumbass, this is what we need, a goto guy, someone who can always hit some jumpshots when everybody else cant”. Iverson was never even close to my top 100 active nba players before that but somehow I convinced myself that it will be a good thing. It’s amazing how stupid and blind I was just because it was my team. Well now I have to agree with him that I should have been crying that day.

Not that I like it, but you know Curry’s job is safe no matter what happens this season. JD is not going to fire him because he would look like an idiot for hiring him, which he was, but that’s besides the point. I do think that if this team still has no identity next season though that he probably will get canned.

And I think you have to blame a lot of this on JD too. He’s the one that did the trade, and there’s no way Curry is making all these terrible decisions by himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if JD was making about %50 of Curry’s decisions for him. Because there’s no way he would just sit back and watch Curry make mistake after mistake without adding his own 2 cents.

The biggest problem with this team this year is exactly what the players have been hinting about to the media. There’s no consistency!! I’ve said it before, athletes need to know what their role is and how they fit into the system. And the fact that the Pistons have no system pretty much sums it up.

Hey JD, when you get the players that you want with all this money you’ve accumulated, how about getting a coach with experience that has been part of a championship(s) in the past.

I think on this road trip tonight is the most winnable game. I heard media people say Miami game was, but I did not agree. If and that’s a big if, we can stop Chris Paul from staying out of the lane too much much I think we have a shot.

^^Interesting article pistonfan101. I think Dyess is pretty much saying that he doesn’t believe in this team anymore unless significant changes are made in the off season. Do you blame him? If he does get a ring some day I hope it’s with a team that he gets to play for for a whole season. It seems like that’s what he would want. Then he wouldn’t be a “ring chaser”, and I would be happy for him. He’s the only one on this team that gives a crap anymore.

I’ve been reading the posts, and I just agree that the blame is on Curry. I don’t accept the people that says: “We are rebuilding” i colud accept that i f I haven’t had a single talented player, but look at the Pistons roster, we are freakin talented, AI-RIP-TAY-SHEED-DICE-STUCK, and all of the bench players are too, is just that Curry doesn’t know how to put them togheter, and i knew this was going to happen since the beining of the season (even with chauncey) but i wanted to be wrong. Curry has lost the players attention and respect, so he needs to go, just to finish the season as we were suposed.